why no fancy 1st/business class amenities to Latin America?

Anyone have any ideas why the airlines do not have the fancy 1st/business class amenities on flights to latin America?
I usually do at least 1 part of my flight to and from the US to destinations in Latin America in 1st/business 1st and have noticed that when you look on the airlines web sites, they always list the fancy seats, fancy meals, amenity kits for flights to Europe and other destinations but not to Latin America and I was wondering why? I can see in some cases that it would be a short flight but in some cases it is not - flights to South American destinations for example from Houston which is where I usually go from, are usually 3 or more hours.

The only time I have had a truly 1st experience was when I went to Peru during the shoulder season - Continental had the flat bed seats and the multi course meals but no amenity kit which would have been nice. Then I went to Peru the next year in June and it was just the regular leather 1st class seats and no big multi course meal - I asked the flight attendant where was the fancy stuff like I had the year before and she said they only do that on flights that are in the off or shoulder season - does not make sense to me. You would think that since Latin America is becoming more popular for Americans that they would offer the same stuff they do for flights to Hawaii, Europe, etc.
Any thoughts

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Originally Posted by [email protected]

Anyone have any ideas why the airlines do not have the fancy 1st/business class amenities on flights to latin America?
I usually do at least 1 part of my flight to and from the US to destinations in Latin America in 1st/business 1st and have noticed that when you look on the airlines web sites, they always list the fancy seats, fancy meals, amenity kits for flights to Europe and other destinations but not to Latin America and I was wondering why? I can see in some cases that it would be a short flight but in some cases it is not - flights to South American destinations for example from Houston which is where I usually go from, are usually 3 or more hours.

The only time I have had a truly 1st experience was when I went to Peru during the shoulder season - Continental had the flat bed seats and the multi course meals but no amenity kit which would have been nice. Then I went to Peru the next year in June and it was just the regular leather 1st class seats and no big multi course meal - I asked the flight attendant where was the fancy stuff like I had the year before and she said they only do that on flights that are in the off or shoulder season - does not make sense to me. You would think that since Latin America is becoming more popular for Americans that they would offer the same stuff they do for flights to Hawaii, Europe, etc.
Any thoughts

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[email protected]..... on our recent trip to Peru, we flew AA out of MIA to LIM. It's only a 5.75 hrs flight, but since our flight was a red eye, departing MIA at 11:55pm, we decided we would use some miles to upgrade to biz class and get some rest. We noticed, when starting our search for flight options, that AA was using a 757, which normally doesn't have the lay-flat seats. We spoke with a reservation agent and she told us, some of their 757 have been retro fitted on international flight with lay-flat seats, but she could not confirm whether the planes used for MIA-LIM had been done or not. Checked Airline Seating Charts - Best Airplane Seats - SeatGuru, which indicated 757s version 1 did not have flat seats, while version 2 did have flat seats. We decided to roll the dice and go for the upgrade.

Well, you guess it....our plane was version 1 and had nothing more than a domestic first class seat with minimal recline. So, we blew the miles + the upgrade fee and we weren't pleased (no reason to complain to the cabin crew).

Upon our return home, we detailed our situation, including a couple of pix we took of the cabin and sent the letter to AA. We accepted full responsibility for making the decision even though the reservation agent had told us she did not know one way or the other. However, we felt AA, in the spirit of good customer relations, should consider restoring the AA miles to our account. We didn't feel AA had a responsibility to return the upgrade fee, since we had utilized the seats and they had not been overtly "misrepresented' - in our opinion, it was a 'sin of omission, not a sin of commission' on the part of AA.

We did received a letter from AA in response. The essence of their response, it that the reservation agent could not determine whether the 757 had been retro fitted or not, since she did not have access to the tail number of the aircraft used on our flight or any other AA flight. The letter explained this information was secure and not shared with their reservation agents or with the general public, for internal security reasons. However, AA did restore out miles, but retained the fee. Good public relations and we were satisfied.

In the past we have flown LAN for MIA-LIM, and they use 767, with two or three classes, with lay-flat beds up front. We have also flown AA767s for MIA-SCL and those planes offer lay flat beds in biz class.

I pretty much always fly out of Philadelphia and sometimes Newark and have found that Continental usually offers the best fares in my region - I check AAA, LAN and others and the airfares are all way higher than Continental - I am waiting to see what happens when the United/Continental merger fully goes through - even with Philly being a United hub their fares to Latin America from Philly are still a lot higher than Continental (when we go to Mexico next month - United's coach fares were the same as what I got for business/first on Continental) Both United and continental flights on this route have the regular domestic 1st seats

Quote:

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Originally Posted by [email protected]

Anyone have any ideas why the airlines do not have the fancy 1st/business class amenities on flights to latin America?
I usually do at least 1 part of my flight to and from the US to destinations in Latin America in 1st/business 1st and have noticed that when you look on the airlines web sites, they always list the fancy seats, fancy meals, amenity kits for flights to Europe and other destinations but not to Latin America and I was wondering why? I can see in some cases that it would be a short flight but in some cases it is not - flights to South American destinations for example from Houston which is where I usually go from, are usually 3 or more hours.

The only time I have had a truly 1st experience was when I went to Peru during the shoulder season - Continental had the flat bed seats and the multi course meals but no amenity kit which would have been nice. Then I went to Peru the next year in June and it was just the regular leather 1st class seats and no big multi course meal - I asked the flight attendant where was the fancy stuff like I had the year before and she said they only do that on flights that are in the off or shoulder season - does not make sense to me. You would think that since Latin America is becoming more popular for Americans that they would offer the same stuff they do for flights to Hawaii, Europe, etc.
Any thoughts

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Denise, I spoke with LAN this morning about pricing some fares to Peru for my upcoming trip. They told me they fly a Boeing 767 from Miami to Lima and they offer flat bed seats in their Premium Business class.

I have a friend who flew on Delta ATL/LIM and they had flat beds (767-400). It's not offered every day, tho--AC varies.

kyshel, did you have flat beds when you flew down to Lima on Delta?

no--they vary the aircraft based on contracted cargo, not just pax count. we had last 2 coach seats going down and business recline on the return
check the AC type on Delta.com, then additional seating info on seat guru

It does vary by airline. We flew on AA from Chile back to the US and it was the older style seats in Business. I was trying to get frequent flier tickets on Lan as their Business Class looked far superior.

I think I need to fly out of Newark to use LAN - Philly is lacking on some of these different airlines

Hi D...we flew back from Chile on Lan from Santiago to Miami. We then took AA from Miami to Philly. Good news is that LAN and AA are code share so you can use either and still fly out of Philly!